Timeline for Graduate School Applications
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- Familiarize yourself with the graduate school application process
- Involve yourself in graduate level research
- Begin talking to professors and graduate students about their careers
- Start noticing the university affiliation of scholars who interest you
- Research fellowships and other funding sources
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- Align your MMUF/ADRF research project with your grad school interests
- Get to know professors who will be able to write your recommendations
- Talk to those professors about your interests
- Consider applying for junior year fellowships
- Take a practice GRE test
- Begin to research graduate programs
- Apply to a summer program
- Visit one or two potential graduate programs
- Talk to graduate students in similar fields
- Talk to your mentor about a senior honors thesis
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- Write a draft of your personal statement
- Refine your list of graduate programs
- Make contact with professors and graduate students in programs of interest
- Apply to Financial Aid for GRE fee waiver if applicable
- Study for and take the GRE
- Research fellowships and plan to apply for Williams and national fellowships
- Choose a writing sample for those programs that request one
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- Finalize your list of graduate programs
- Take GRE subject tests if required
- Show your personal statement to faculty mentors and attend OSAP workshops
- Ask faculty for letters of recommendation (at least two should be from your field)
- Apply for national fellowships
- Make a timeline of deadlines
- Apply for fee waivers if eligible; ask Financial Aid office for letter
- Order your transcripts from Williams and study abroad programs
- Check with graduate admissions offices that your applications are complete
Fellowships, Scholarships, Awards & Grants
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- American Political Science Association
- National Science Foundation
- Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education (WICHE)
- New England Board of Higher Education (NEBHE)
- Southern Regional Education Board (SREB)
- Ford Foundation
- American Indian Graduate School
- Hispanic Scholarship Fund (HSF)
- Ford Motor Company Fellows Program
- Shell Legislative Internship Program (SLIP)
- American Sociological Association Minority Fellowships Program
- National Physical Science Consortium (NPSC) Fellowships in the Physical Sciences
- Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC) Predoctoral Fellowship Program
- Graduate Education for Minorities (GEM) Ph.D. Program in Science
- Fannie and John Hertz Foundation Graduate Fellowship Program
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute Predoctoral Fellowship in Biological Sciences
- Department of Defense National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship Program (NDSEG)
- National Forum for Black Public Administrators
- American Association of University Women
Financing Resources
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- Financing Graduate School (Princeton, NJ: Peterson's Guides, 1996). By Patricia McWade, includes tips for financial planning, study abroad, and sources of aid for minorities.
- Barron's Complete College Financing, Third Edition (New York: Barron's Educational Series, Inc., 1997). This includes a concise listing of major funding sources for graduate school programs.
- Getting What You Came for: The Smart Student's Guide to Earning a Master's or Ph.D (New York: Noonday Press (Farrar Straus, & Giroux), 1997), by Robert L. Peters, includes a section on financial aid that concentrates on obtaining departmental aid and how schools assess a student's financial needs.
- The Graduate Student's Complete Scholarship Book (Naperville, IL: Sourcebooks, 1998), by Student Services, LLC, lists more than 2000 grants and scholarships for graduate study.
- The Real Guide to Grad School (New York, NY: Lingua Franca, 1997). Information on the history, current issues, programs and specialties offered, where you should consider going, the job market, resources (journals and websites) of twenty-three disciplines in the humanities and social sciences. View excerpts or order online. www.linguafranca.com.
- Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Student's Guide to Colleges, Universities and Graduate Schools (New York: NYU Press, 1994) by Jan-Mitchell Sherrill is helpful in planning for graduate school. www.qrd.org or www.indian.edu/~glbtpol/.
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